The Closet Environmentalist

Every year, we buy tons of batteries, usually not rechargeable. They are used for portable electronic devices, toys, etc.

As a closet environmentalist, I use rechargeable batteries. I use fewer batteries, throw out fewer batteries, make fewer trips to Costco to buy batteries etc. Environmentally, this one is a no-brainer. Just buy them and use them. They pay for themselves over and over again.

The folks at Greenbatteries Store have some good reusable batteries if you prefer to get them online.

I initially got into composting because our city was planning to have a "user-pay" garbage collection scheme where you paid extra for every bag after two. I didn't want to pay. About 15 years ago, our city also offered a free composter to every household that wanted one. I decided to get one and get it going.

Composting has cut down our garbage output a lot. All plant-based kitchen waste gets composted. I then realized that I needed another composter for garden waste. Over the years, I have acquired 4 composters for free from the city, neighbours, etc. The city never did follow through, but I built a habit of composting and reduced my landfill footprint without changing my lifestyle.

In the autumn I rake all my leaves into a big pile. Then instead of spending $20 in special garbage bags for leaves, I run over the leaves with a lawn mower, perhaps spending $10 in gas. That reduces the volume of the leaves by 80%. Those shredded leaves go straight into the composter.

The other benefit of composting is that I get nice-smelling compost every August that I can spread around my plants and trees. That in itself saves tens of dollars on fertilizer and packaged mud, manure, zoo-poo, etc.

Composting saves money, and it is "environmental". Try it!

At one point I pushed past plain old composting and tried vermicomposting. It is really cool.

Basically you get a box about 2 feet wide by 3 feet long by 2 feet deep, and no air holes. Inside you put soggy newspaper and kitchen compost, and perhaps a half pound of red wriggler worms. (They have to be red wrigglers because they are the only ones that eat uncomposted food). You cover it with a lid with a few air holes.

The worms then go to work. They live an idyllic life. They eat. They poo. They have hot worm sex. Here's how I know:

1. The newspaper and food starts to disappear.


2. The colour of the compost gets browner and browner and looks like mud.


3. There are lots of worms lying together in the conjugal "11" position. (That's wormese for "69").


4. Eventually, you see lots of baby worms.

The worms go through the food fast, and reproduce fast too. Eventually you must remove about 3/4 of the worms and compost, and refresh the compost with fresh new paper and kitchen waste. If you don't do this, the pH of the compost gets too low, and the worms get uncomfortable, and try to escape. This happened to me, and I had to get them out of the house, "or else". At that point, it was November, so I decided to dig a bit in my outdoor composter and throw the worms in. Some did live because in the spring, my composter was full of red wrigglers.

You can get red wrigglers in Canada and USA at wormcomposting.ca for $25-ish to get you going.

I am on the fence about vermicomposting. It takes a bit more time than I am able to invest, and I have not found a cheap source of red wrigglers. (Mind you, I haven't really looked either). However, if you have the time and find a cheap source of red wrigglers, then vermicomposting will make your compost much richer. This not a bad thing for a "Closet Environmentalist", but it is still a bit much for me for now.

As a closet environmentalist, I took a good hard look at CFC light bulbs. They seemed attractive at first because the power consumption was about 1/3 of comparable incandescent light bulbs. I decided to try them out, even if they cost 4x as much as incandescents.

The first ones were not great because they had the typical fluorescent blue-white light. However, over the years, soft white CFC bulbs (same colour as incandescent bulb light) have become cost-competitive with the blue-white ones.

Asides from that, they looked and worked the same if they were in an enclosure. So I had that warm fuzzy feeling that I was helping the environment and saving power.

I was pleasantly surprised at the replacement rates. With incandescent bulbs, I could count on changing light bulbs quite regularly around the house. WIth CFC bulbs, I hardly ever have to replace one. Others have said that these CFC bulbs last 10 times longer.

I then tried a CFC bulb that was supposed to work with a dimmer. It sucked. Most of the time it had a very noticeable flicker, and it didn't give consistent light levels for any particular dimmer setting. I threw it out and decided that all of my lights on dimmers would remain incandescent for now. Too bad.

Overall, the CFC bulb experience has been good as a closet environmentalist. Even if they are more expensive up front, their overall cost is less than half that of incandescent bulbs because they last so long. i.e. I save money. Also, since they last so long, I only spend about 20% as much time changing light bulbs. i.e. I save time.

And I also get the warm fuzzy feeling that I'm doing "my part" in saving the environment, reducing global warming, yada, yada, yada.

Check Energy Star for more information.

Many of us have been there. You invite a half dozen kids to a birthday party. Each invited person goes to a store (probably Wal Mart) and buys some excessively packaged toy, usually with multiple detachable parts and one that breaks easily. The kids have the party. After the party there is a pile of toys, a pile of wrappers, and a pile of toy packages. The kids play with the toys for a week, and then it accumulates somewhere in house, denying you the use of some of your valuable real estate.

Dave & Viv are friends of mine that had a great idea. I'm not sure if they are environmentalists, but here is the idea. Invite kids for a birthday party. State that no presents are expected or wanted. They would appreciate that the giver donate to CHEO instead. Here's the upside:

• No wrapping paper and packaging to discard as landfill fodder.


• No piles of broken toys all over the floor ready to stab your feet as you walk by.


• No shopping trip to buy toys. Just an online donation.


• No piles of toys to act as landfill fodder.

As a closet environmentalist, I like this idea because it saves time and money, and it is environmentally friendly.

For years, it was the same routine. Buy a string of incandescent Christmas lights and hang them up in mid-November. By about mid-December go out and replace the burnt bulbs at the cost of about half a string of lights. Take them down in mid-February. Next season, test the lights, and discover it will take the cost of a string of lights to replace the burnt bulbs.

This was not right, so it became more cost-effective just to throw the string of lights in the garbage in February, and buy a new string the following year. However, it didn't feel environmentally friendly.

A few years ago, LED Christmas lights came on the market. They cost about three times as much as incandescent lights and used about 10% of the power. I decided to try them as an experiment.

I was pleasantly surprised. First and foremost, I did not have to replace any of the LED lights. It also follows that I didn't have to buy a string of lights every year either. After three years of use, I spent just as much as if I had bought a new string of incandescent lights every year, but without tossing the spent string every February in the landfill. I am now on my fourth season with the same string of LED lights. I have not yet replaced any bulbs. I have not thrown out any any bulbs or strings of bulbs. This year, I still did not have to buy anything.

LED Christmas lights are great for closet environmentalists. They cost a bit more up front, but they last so long that you get more value over three years over incandescent bulbs. Also, you don't have to waste time buying and replacing burnt bulbs every year. And they only use a tenth of the power. Save money. Save time. Enjoy that warm fuzzy feeling that you're doing your part to save the environment.

My friend Christina suggested that Bullfrog Power as a way to be environmental.

It looks good. Here are the upsides:

• You don't have to make any capital investments. Nothing to buy, install, or maintain.


• Bullfrog Power generates clean power (e.g. wind, solar, etc) and feeds it into the electrical grid. You take power from the grid just like you do today. i.e. It reduces pollution, carbon footprint, etc.


• You don't have to change the way you use power.


• Changing power providers is like changing long distance phone companies. Easy.

This really appealed to me because it provided an opportunity to do something worthwhile environmentally without changing my lifestyle.

However for now, I will pass on Bullfrog Power. On their web site, they said that it would cost $1/day extra per home on average. Spending an extra $400/year does not appeal to me as a closet environmentalist.

I will keep my eyes on these folks and companies like them. Over time, I'm sure that they will find ways to drive down the costs. At some point it will be worth jumping over.

A couple of years ago, my washer was on the fritz and I was whining to a new friend. He mentioned that he had switched to a front-loading washer. I was intrigued. Why would he do that? It seemed odd, inconvenient, and pointless. He pointed out that:

• Front loading washers use 2/3 the energy.


• Front loading washers use half the water.


• Front loading washers wash bigger loads.


• Clothes from front-loading washers come out drier, which allows them to dry faster in the clothes dryer, thus using less energy to dry.

The main downside is the initial cost which is often several hundred dollars more per washer, and that it takes longer to wash a particular load of clothes.

As a closet environmentalist, it was not enough to convince me to ditch my working top-loading washer. However, when my top-loading washer gives up the ghost, I will probably switch to the front loading washer because I'll save money in the long run, while feeling warm & fuzzy about helping the environment.